League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters of Honolulu this election year is circulating questionnaires among candidates for the Legislature as well as for City-County office.

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THE QUESTIONNAIRES, which the League hopes to have returned by Sept. 15, are being sent to candidates for the House and Senate from Oahu, and to candidates for Honolulu Mayor and Board, and other Oahu County offices.

Candidates for the Legislature are asked to express their opinions on annual sessions of the Legislature, the proposed Charter for Honolulu, and continuation of the general excise tax on retail sales of food and medicine.

COUNTY CANDIDATES are being asked what they think will be the major issue, other than financial, facing the City government in the next two years, how they think Oahu can attract new industries, and under what circumstances subdividers of more than 10 acres should be required to offer playground and school sites at "raw land" value.

Honolulu Star Bulletin, September 11, 1958

Party Platform Talks Scheduled

Robert E. Cates, Oahu Democratic Party chairman, and Robert Fukuda, chairman of the G.O.P.'s preconvention platform committee, will speak on their respective party platforms for 1958 at an open League of Women Voters meeting, next Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at the Y.W.C.A.

Honolulu Star Bulletin, September 13, 1958

Democrats Slate Political Meets

A coffee hour scheduled tomorrow for Democratic candidates from the 17th District and party candidates-at-large will start a week of meetings that will interest members of both parties.

The Sunday coffee hour, to be given at 7:30 p.m., will be at the home of Herman Lum, 733 Onaha Street.

Other coffee hours and meetings next week:

Wednesday -The League of Women Voters will hold a bi-partisan meeting at the Y.W.C.A. at 7:30 p.m., where campaign issues will be discussed by representatives of both parties.

Honolulu Advertiser

ON SCHEDULE - SEPT. 17 - WEDNESDAY

League of Women Voters, 7:30 p.m., YWCA, Richards St. Speakers: Robert E. Gates, Democrat, and Robert K. Fukuda, Republican, on "Party Platforms."

Democrats in the 1957 Legislature were accused last night of killing a Waimanalo small farm and home development bill because Harold K. Castle, owner of Kaneohe Ranch Co., wanted it killed.

The accusation was made by Robert K. Fukuda, a Territorial deputy attorney general, speaking as a Republican in behalf of his party's platform at a meeting of the League of Women Voters of Honolulu.

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FUKUDA SAID Governor King introduced a bill in the last Legislature to condemn the Maunawili water rights owned by Castle and to provide water for the Waimanalo development.

He said, however, "Castle had his own ideas, plus several prominent Democratic politicians in his employ, and the bill wound up in the wastebasket. That's Democratic performance.

"But for that, all the Waimanalo lands would be open now for small homes and farms."

(Neither Castle nor any of the top officials of Kaneohe Ranch Co. was available for comment last night.

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FUKUDA said the only thing that kept King from opening up theTerritory-owned Waimanalo lands, was the lack of water.

Fukuda's accusation came in an exchange between himself and Robert E. Cates, Oahu Democratic County Committee chairman. Each had been invited by the women voters' organization to discuss his respective party's platform. About 30 persons attended the gathering.

CATES who spoke first characterized the Democrats as "the party of promise and delivery" and outlined the accomplishments of the Democrats in the 1957 Legislature.

Cates accused Governor Quinn's present Republican administration of dragging its feet on economic development planning and in studying land tax assessment procedures.

He told the group that the 1957 economic development act-Act 150-was one of the best of its kind in the United States, but that Quinn and Frank Lombardi, Territorial planning director, had not yet accomplished any specific projct included in the act.

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FUKUDA called Act 150 pork barrel bill, containing millions and millions of dollar, in appropriations, but without the funds to finance them and then throwing the lot at tine planning director and mandating him to set up a priority system.

"That Is Act 150," Fukuda said. "Is it any wonder the planning director is having difficulty deciding where to start on the bill?"

Regarding the land tax assessment study, Fukuda said Cates had been "rather intemperate in imputing to Governor Quinn" a desire to delay that study. He said he knows "personally that Governor Quinn has asked more than once that the study be speeded up."

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1958

Democrats Blocked Farms in Waimanalo, Fukuda Says

A Republican official charged last night that the Democratic Party thwarted Republican efforts to develop Waimanalo land for small farms during the 1957 Legislature by aiding a large land owner.

Robert K. Fukuda, chairman of the G.O.P. pre-convention platform committee, furled the accusation when he appeared before the League Women Voters with Oahu Democratic Party chairman Robert E. Cates.

Republicans have long been accused of helping large land owners, Fukuda said, but it was the Democrats who aided one of Oahu's largest laid owners -- Harold K. Castle and the Kaneohe Ranch Company.

GOVERNOR'S BILL

Fukuda said former Governor King had a bill introduced to condemn water rights at Maurtawili -- owned by the Kaneohe Ranch Company -- because further development of farms at Waimanalo from Territorial land was impossible without water.

"But Mr. Castle was able to prevail upon the Democratic legislature to kill the bill," he said, "because he has subdivision plans of his own and some Democrats are tied in with these plans."

Fukuda brought this matter up when Cates counted the accomplishment of the Democratic Party during the 1957 Legislative session and called it the party of "promise and delivery."

Fukuda said the plans and performance of the Democrats in the realm of land development are miles apart.

Mr. Castle was not in his office this morning and unavailable for comment,

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1958

G.O.P., Democrat Spokesmen Differ Over Home Rule, Taxes, Lands

Armed with copies of 1958 party platforms and other documents, two speakers-a Democrat and a Republican -last night told some 50 members of the League of Women Voters why they believed theme platforms were superior.

Robert E. Cates, Oahu Democratic Party chairman, and Robert K. Fukuda, chairman of the G.O.P.'s preconvention platform committee, engaged in a friendly verbal exchange at the Y.W.C.A.

While they agreed on many issues, the speakers, nevertheless, did not see eye to eye on some others.

SELF-GOVERNMENT

Cates maintained that efforts should be directed toward obtaining greater powers of self-government by fighting for an Organic Law which will include election of the Governor and the selection of judges.

Each county, he said, should be granted further powers of self-government and every county should frame its own charter whenever it desired.

But Fukuda believed that so far as home rule is concerned, the Governor should I be vested with power of appointing all police and liquor commissions.

Fukuda said he believed in providing the opportunity for more public participation in determining Department of Public Instruction policies-by the use of elected citizens' advisory groups in each county.

Cates countered by saying, "We should make the policies for public schools more representative by providing. for an elected school board."

EXCISE TAX

Cates denounced the use of the 1 per cent increase in the general excise tax as an excuse for even greater price increase under the guise of a tax bracket system.

"We should remove the 3% per cent sales tax on basic foods for home consumption and oppose any increase in the excise tax on other items," Fukuda said.

Cates favored the enactment of laws designed to expedite the acquisition by private persons of fee simple land, both privately and publicly owned, for homes, farms and businesses.

PUBLIC LANDS

Fukuda said he favors the return to the Territory of title to public lands and exemption of coffee farmers from the minimum wage law.